My journey into the rabbit hole of education and learning led me into the warren of instructional coaching. Instructional coaching forms an umbrella over the concepts, mindsets, and practices of the discipline I am delving into – instructional technology coaching and implementation. The Instructional Playbook by Jim Knight provides a succinct overview of the discipline simultaneously with the fundamentals necessary to building your own playbook. As I am more interested in the intricacies of instructional technology coaching and implementation at this time, Knight’s Playbook is a gateway of inspiration for adapting the methods and building an instructional technology playbook of sorts.
Instructional coaches build a playbook for teachers to help condense and summarize teaching strategies. This playbook is a reference guide for aiding a school (or entire district) in teaching better. One common refrain I hear in my district from teachers is that they don’t know what tools are available to use, or how to use them in the classroom from a learning point of view. Enter in the playbook. Technology specialists must step into the lifelong learning journey that teachers are on to properly serve and address the needs of an ever-changing student body.
“Striving to get better is inherent to our humanity. When we stop learning, growing, and improving, something inside of us dies. Getting better, in contrast, fills us with life.”
Jim Knight
The basic components of instructional playbooks are surprisingly simple, as “the most effective playbooks are lean and clean.” Playbooks should be composed of three parts: a table of contents, one-pagers (overviews of each strategy), and checklists (detailed step-by-step directions on how to use the method or strategy in practical terms). Where playbooks lead instructional staff astray is when they become bloated and overly comprehensive. Rather than a master reference guide for every instructional method available to the teachers, the playbook should be a curated quality reference of fifteen to twenty of the most effective strategies utilized by the school or district. It is not set in stone, but to contain more becomes overwhelming for an already overwhelmed instructional staff. The key to the playbook is keeping it focused on what it is meant to do: aid the teachers in teaching better. If it won’t contribute to this central goal, then strip it away and cut the fat. Information overload works against the process, by providing too much information and too many strategies in reality is providing no strategies.
There is a symbiotic relationship between the playbook and the instructional coach. As the instructional designer curates and creates the playbook, the depth of knowledge grows for the designer. The act of creation forces the instructional coach to review and self-audit continually, until they know the strategies and methods inside and out, far better than without a carefully curated playbook. Keeping within the limits and boundaries additionally ensures that the strategies that are included have been tested and vetted with current research. The coach continues this process annually, tweaking strategies and breakdowns, and determines which to remove and what new ones to include. A playbook in motion leads to thriving education full of warmth, while a playbook written in stone leads to cold and lifeless teaching.
The process of creating the playbook revolves around what Knight terms “the impact cycle.” The impact cycle is structured around three stages: identify, learn, and improve. In stage 1, identify, first identify the current reality of the classroom (the root problem). Next, identify a powerful student-focused goal to address and solve the problem. Lastly, identify a teaching strategy the teacher will implement to hit that goal. Armed with these identifications, a clear problem, goal, and plan emerges to guide the rest of the cycle. In stage 2, learn, the coach explains and models the strategy selected to the teachers, ensuring that teachers are partners in determining how the strategy will be adapted for the unique needs of the students. Stage 3, improve, centers on responding to feedback with data analysis to adapt and adjust the strategy. One does not simply expect a teaching strategy to impact student outcomes on a singular use-case. It will take time for the teacher to integrate the teaching strategy and for the students to respond to the shift in learning practice. This impact cycle is repetitious, but systematic. Having a simple process to guide the deep learning, adaptation, and continual evolution of teaching facilitates aiding teachers in a manageable manner, when it can easily become overwhelming.
Instead of relying on time-based goals for student outcomes, Knight encourages the use of what he calls the PEERS goals framework. Time-based goals are less effective, due to the complexities of working with students experiencing a wide range of emotions on any given day. PEERS is a five-step framework for goal setting. It focuses on setting POWERFUL goals for students, always keeping student learning as the central focus of the entire process. Within the framework, there is duality at play. Goals should both be EASY to understand for the students and easy to communicate by the teacher, as well as being EMOTIONALLY compelling. Keep the goals REACHABLE, by being measurable and having a clearly defined strategy. Lastly, goals should be articulated as STUDENT-FOCUSED, placing the needs of the student above all else. Instructional strategies can then be selected by the coach and teacher based on what will most effectively address goals identified by the PEERS framework.
Clearly defined goals are critical to an effective instructional coaching strategy. IF teachers using selected strategies do not achieve the goals intended, it is up to the coach to re-evaluate the strategy. No matter the science and research behind instructional strategies, if they are not effective in practice, then they may be removed from the playbook. This adds to the mystique of the playbook as an evolving and living body of work, never fully achieving stasis but rather perpetual motion. Evaluation however is not based on subjective criteria, but on objective research-based data within the context of a local institution. What works for one teacher in one classroom may not hold true for another in a different one. Concrete student outcome focused goals lead to objective data-oriented validity throughout evaluation. It helps remove biases from the coach and teacher, as humans there is a tendency to gravitate and gain an affinity for a particular strategy or educational technique, even when it may not be the most effective in affecting student outcomes.
As the playbook is a living document, it is imperative that instructional coaches establish a clearly defined continuous improvement process. Student needs are constantly changing, and neglecting to regularly adapt the playbook does a disservice to the education and learning of students. A continuous improvement process ensures that there are specific dates for review. Knight recommends that dates be set at least three times per year. The process should also include all parties involved, from coaches, teachers, to administrators such as the principal and curriculum director. These parties will discuss what they learned about the strategies to adjust their implementation and evaluate in conjunction with objective data (as described previously).
The bedrock of the playbook is the one-pager. A one-page is a document that summarizes essential information about a teaching strategy, broken down into individual components that are easily digestible and simply defined. Everything in the one-pager is centered on keeping it simple. The technique itself is defined in a single sentence. A coach should include a short summary of what the research says regarding the technique, such as bullet points on the why and when and study referenced. List why the technique is helpful, in what the point of it is. A breakdown of how it aids the teacher and is used by the student should also be included. The essential components are boiled down to the following:
- What the strategy is about
- What its purpose is
- Research that supports it
- How teachers use it
- How students use it
The act of coaching requires a delicate balance of deep knowledge but also highly effective relational communication. Instructional coaches work with teachers to play {sic} to their strengths and empower them to be the most effective teachers they can be. The relationship is modeled as a partnership between the coach and teacher, both parties collaborating to foster the best student outcomes. While the playbook is an essential manual and tool in the coach’s kit, it is more of a menu of options rather than a procedural prescription. You cannot take a stance that a particular x strategy will always work in y situation. There is no complete absolute formula for the instructional process. Instead, a unique solution will need to be curated and adapted to each individual teacher and classroom situation.
“The curse of knowledge is that when we know something extremely well, we assume others will pick it up right away. In reality, our level of knowledge actually makes it more difficult for us to communicate.”
Jim Knight
As an instructional coach must know the instructional strategies and techniques backwards and forwards, they must be wary of the curse of knowledge. There is no escaping it. Through creation of the one-pager, a coach will presume the playbook is simple to understand, but communicating selected strategies to teachers in a clear and precise manner makes or breaks the entire process. Without complete buy-in and comprehension from the teacher, the strategy itself becomes less of an asset and more of a barrier in student learning. Teachers resist change when they are not given the opportunity to reflect and think for themselves. The nature of the preparation involved in becoming a teacher imbues educators with a certain degree of tacit knowledge, which becomes difficult to clearly articulate. But when a coach approaches collaboration with a teacher with clearly defined checklists within a playbook, teachers are better able to elaborate on their tacit knowledge in the classroom. Checklists themselves are composed around explicit knowledge, which teachers can adapt and integrate into their own individual tacit style. Playbook checklists are prescriptive tools that help teachers get better at what they do.
This is why a personalized approach must be taken between the instructional coach and educator. Our individual identity shapes style and at the core of education lies the fundamental truth that learning revolves around relationships. Learning is a relationship between the educator and the student, but also a relationship between the student and the material, and the relationship from the content to the teacher. The human element of relationship drives the passion and continuous adaptation of the playbook, rather than a machine-manufactured guide of strategies that sits lifeless on the shelf. The playbook is not static, but dynamic, constantly being improved. The content may vary widely and be completely overhauled every few years. From one-pagers to video guides and descriptive checklists, the content is situational and defined by the needs of the students and teachers. It is a tool for the teachers. Empowering teachers to be their best versions of themselves is the ultimate end-goal, whether or not a particular strategy supports the research is not. There is no “holy grail” instructional strategy, but rather a time and place for each one. It is up to the coach and teacher to determine the place and time.
The methods and practices of an instructional coach can easily be adapted for instructional technology coaching. Technology tools in the classrooms are part and parcel of the curriculum and should be considered as one cohesive underlying component, rather than an add-on at the end. As an instructional playbook is created, technology tools could be integrated within each one-pager as a component of the technique if it enables particular strategies to function more effectively and efficiently. But a tech coach could also create a separate playbook, using the same approach to create one-pagers and checklists for each technology tool available to the district. Depending on the needs of the students, the partnership with teachers would determine which tool could be utilized to address deficiencies in learning outcomes. A playbook of this nature would continue to be a living document and resource, as apps and tools are changed by the developers, and as tools become discontinued or added to the district curriculum toolbox.
While I initially envisioned a completely separate playbook specific to technology tools, it may be that the above idea of combining it with the instructional playbook is a better approach, as tools simply serve to augment and enhance the instruction that is taking place. They are not stand-alone magical fixit tools. They must be utilized in conjunction with an instructional strategy for maximum effect. A technology playbook could be created as a compendium guide to the instructional playbook, with page references within each one-pager for more information, rather than cluttering up the instructional playbook itself with detailed checklists of how to utilize the tools. Technology tools themselves lend themselves to checklist references, and would add an additional dimension to the instructional playbook if incorporated in that method. The advantage of combining the two playbooks would be to specify the way each tool aids the instructional strategies they enhance. For example, several tools may be listed as options under differentiated learning, but the application and function of the tool and specific practice of use by students would vary from the app being listed under a different strategy. Each tool could be tailored and broken-down into minutia to enhance how teachers could utilize it for instruction and students for learning, rather than an “one-size fits all approach,” which would occur if a playbook for technology tools was created in a vacuum, apart from the instructional techniques themselves.
Jim Knight’s fluid approach to collaborating with teachers through an instructional playbook is a step forward in education. The continuous process of education with living, breathing, feeling students requires an agile approach, steered through rigorously researched and implemented instructional strategies, incorporating various curriculum tools and ideas. Technology should not be considered independent of this process, but alongside the curriculum and considered at every stage of the process and approach. 21st Century students require 21st century methods. In an ever-changing world, educational methods themselves must be ever-changing alongside the young minds.
This work opens up a series of questions – what is the relationship between instructional coaches and technology coaches at school districts? Do districts view them as distinct roles or are they one and the same? If districts have both roles, are there two separate playbooks? Do technology coaches even use a playbook formatted with what Knight described? Or are they integrated in an approach that I allude to and include similar ideas to my closing thoughts above?
Coaches have enormous potential to help teachers learn and implement new teaching practices, but coaches will be effective only if they deeply understand the strategies they describe and their explanations are clear. The Instructional Playbook: The Missing Link for Translating Research into Practice addresses both issues head on and offers a simple and clear explanation of how to create a playbook uniquely designed to meet teachers’ instructional needs.
The idea of an instructional playbook has caught fire since Jim Knight described it in The Impact Cycle (2017). This book helps instructional coaches create playbooks that produce a common language about high-impact teaching strategies, deepen everyone’s understanding of what instructional coaches do, and, most important, support teachers and students in classrooms.